A: No, ILDA does not require sponsorship. It is illegal for U.S.-based trade associations such as ILDA to require sponsorship or similar prior approval by existing members. This is because existing members could conspire to keep competitors out of the trade association.

A U.S.-based trade association must be open to all who meet reasonable, non-restrictive membership requirements. In any questionable cases, the ILDA Board can review and approve memberships as per the ILDA Bylaws.

If an ILDA Member violates the Codes or Principles, then anyone (the general public or another Member) can file a complaint with the ILDA Ethics Committee.

Hopefully, unethical or unsafe companies will not want to deal with potential Ethics Complaints, and will decide not to join ILDA.

(We receive a few complaints, on average, each year. Usually the complaint is resolved quietly to both parties' satisfaction. There have been some occasions when ILDA has revoked membership and effectively "kicked out" a company.)

While this is not a perfect system to guarantee all transactions with Members, it does provide some protection. It is a useful way to have an impartial body — the Ethics Committee — work to resolve any problems with an ILDA Member. For more information, see the Consumer protection page.

ILDA membership, in contrast, is open to any company or person agreeing to our ethics and business practice codes, who affirms basic safety knowledge, and who pays dues. It is easier to be an ILDA Member than to be an ILDA Accredited Professional Lasershow Company.

A: ILDA welcomes all types of laserists. Often, you can tell something about the size of a company by reading the description they submitted to the online Membership directory. Of course, you can also visit their website to get a feel for past projects and staffing levels.

Also, for ILDA Corporate Members, ILDA dues are based on the company's stated annual billings for lasershow sales. There are three dues levels, for companies billing over USD $1,000,000; companies billing between $250,000 and $1,000,000; and for companies billing below $250,000.

In the online Membership directory, you can see which dues level — Corporate 1, 2 or 3 — each company fits into. This gives a general idea of their size in the laser display industry. (ILDA does not check up on the billings claims; we go by what the laser company states when they join or renew.)

A: ILDA is a trade association, to help promote companies involved in laser shows and displays. We do not make or certify products.

• To find out if someone is an ILDA Member, check our online Membership directory. Current Members are allowed to display an ILDA Member logo on their websites and other marketing materials. We provide two layouts on the ILDA Member logos page; both have the ILDA logo plus the word “MEMBER” or the Membership level.

• ILDA has developed certain technical standards. If a product meets those standards, any company (member or non-member) can claim in general terms that the product is "ILDA compatible" or "meets ILDA standards." It is up to the company as to whether this is true or not. -- If the company is an ILDA Member, and the product does not comply, then anyone can file a complaint with the ILDA Ethics Committee. -- If the company is not a member, please contact ILDA and we will try to get the company to stop with any false claims.

• ILDA's logo is only used for association business. The ILDA logo is not to be used by anyone, Member or non-member, to indicate products that claim to meet ILDA standards.

A: ILDA dues do NOT run from the first time you pay dues until one year later. Instead, ILDA dues run from Jan 1 - Dec 31 of each year.

If you join in mid-year, you pay only partial dues.

If you join towards the end of the year, you get a special deal with the rest of that year and the entire next year.

Otherwise (if you are currently or recently a Member) you pay dues for the period January 1 - December 31.

Here are details:

For new members joining in mid-year, the dues are prorated. This means that the later in the year you join, the less you pay for that year. (For example, if you join on July 1, the dues will be approximately 1/2 of full-year dues.) Once your new member renewal comes up at the end of the year, then you will be asked to renew for Jan 1 - Dec 31 of the upcoming year at the full year dues cost.

For new members joining towards the end of the year, they pay a full year’s dues. They get the end of the joining year plus the entire next year. This is in effect a one-time special deal where a person gets 13 or 14 months for the price of 12. (Note that the exact date when the year-end deal starts may vary from year to year.)

For current ILDA Members, they are asked to renew at the end of each year; for example, at the end of 2017. The renewal is good from January 1 through December 31 of the upcoming year (2018 in the example). Note that it does not matter when during the year the Member pays. Even if they do not pay until later in the year for some reason, the full year dues are still owed. This is to prevent existing Members from delaying their payment in order to not pay full-year dues.

For recent past Members, if they rejoin ILDA they pay full membership dues no matter when in the year they renew or rejoin. "Recent past Members" means if a company or person was an ILDA Member in any of the three years immediately preceding the current membership year. (For example, if you were a Member in 2015, and you wanted to rejoin during 2018, you would pay full price. This is because you were a member during one of the three years immediately preceding 2018 (e.g., 2015, 2016 and 2017). In 2019 you will have been out of ILDA for four years, so you can join as a "new" member and be eligible for any applicable mid-year discount.)

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